LAST WORD: Neven's reasons to be cheerful

The Celt’s DAMIAN MCCARNEY arrived at MacNean’s Restaurant in Blacklion to find Ireland’s best chef (it’s official) NEVEN MAGUIRE in fine form and, as it transpires, he’s every reason to be happy.

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From the far end of the plush dining room in MacNean House and Restaurant, Neven’s twinkling eyes and matching smile are clearly detectable. During the course of an hour-long interview his perma-flexed smiling muscles seldom snatch a breather. Forget grinning, and all its self-satisfied inferences, he’s just plain smiling and it’s both disarming and infectious. 

The Celt had come with the admittedly churlish objective of pushing Neven on whether his whiter than apron white persona represents the full picture. Meeting him just a few days after he completed the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) awards hat-trick of Best Chef in Cavan, Ulster and Ireland - a feat he’d also achieved back in 2009 - he had more reason than ever to be content.
In preparation for the interview a colleague had pulled a 2001 photo from the Irish Times archive in which a fresh faced, yet decidedly unhinged Neven prowls an isolated road wielding an enormous meat cleaver. He carries off the crazed chef look rather convincingly.
“You’re standing there like some kind of a maniac,” offers the Celt of the pic.
“I know, I know,” he agrees delightedly.
“I’m a lot wider now; I take up a lot more of the road!” quips the 40-year-old.
He puts this edgy shot down to the will of a damn good photographer, rather than his younger self seeking to nurture a darker image. Whilst he was happy to go along with the Times’ request on that occasion, he does have a limit.
“I remember doing something for the Food and Wine magazine where they had myself, Derek Clarke, and three other chefs and they had this lady in a bikini on a table and we had to put canapés on her. I said, ‘Sorry, I’m not doing this, this isn’t right, this is silly. It’s about the food, and about the chefs and about the Food and Wine Awards, why are we doing this?’”
When the Celt observes that Gordon Ramsey’s TV caricature of a volatile, barking chef is the yang to Neven’s placid ying, he agrees they’re different:
“Very. Very.”
How do you think you are perceived?
“I have worked in kitchens where you get roared and shouted at, and I made a promise to myself when I was young, and learning in lots of kitchens, I’ll never treat my staff like that; it’s not the way I’m brought up. You don’t get the best out of people. I mean Gordon Ramsey is a wonderful chef and a great business man - he has staff that are very loyal to him, so he can’t be that bad. And I know him, he’s like the weather.”
He insists he never raises his voice in the kitchen.
“Aw come on,” the Celt cajoles.
“I don’t need to do that because I have a good team of chefs. I’m very very passionate about what I do. If we make a mistake the way I look at it is, there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s how we better ourselves and not make it again... people think God he can’t always be that nice- you can ask the staff. I know I’m a good person, and that’s why people stay with me. I don’t have a high turnover of staff here because I see them as part of my family... I can’t do this without them, it’s as simple as that, that’s why I’ve got to value them and appreciate them and let them bring ideas.”
The Celt probes: “Even in your personal life? Do you ever just scream at the TV?”
“When Man United lose I cry,” he jokes.
He’s momentarily sidetracked: “One man I’d love to meet some day is Alex Ferguson – I’d love to meet him.”
The Celt suggests he just speaks up - there’s every chance the desire would be mutual from the famous wine fan.
“Well he’s always invited,” he says.
Straw-clutching the Celt enquires: “Tell us the last time you went nuts.”
“Wow! I suppose when I won the award I went nuts with excitement, but no, you’re talking to the wrong guy. I’ve a very high level for pressure.
“But I tell you, last year when I was doing a lot of driving, a lot of demos I did hit a brick wall where I said, ‘No I don’t want to do this any more’, driving late at night up to Cork.
“Two o’clock at night walking around the car, can’t keep my eyes open, haven’t seen my twins in a week, and it broke my heart and it made me realise, no, this is not what I want. So it took me a few months to say, ‘No I can’t do this, I’m sorry’.
“I’ve turned down a huge amount of opportunities this year and I have no regrets. I mean that. I’m not blowing myself up – I’m very happy where I am at the minute and I want to stay here and enjoy it and enjoy my family, enjoy my life. I don’t want to be running around under so much pressure that I’m not enjoying my life.”
His weariness was understandable in light of his hectic schedule. His TV show is eight months into a three-year run on the national public broadcast station (PBS) in the States, he also hosts a St Patrick’s Day special, which attracts 10 million viewers, then there’s the occasional QVC slot, and last year he somehow squeezed in cooking for Congress in Washington.
Meanwhile at home his RTÉ series ‘Home Chef’ broke viewing records in 2013 with an average of over 480,000 viewers tuning in to each show. Oh, and the Bord Bia Irish ambassador for food published an eleventh cook book, The Nation’s Favourite Food in October.

Cookery school
That was then; now he’s scaled back and prioritised those activities he can do closer to his family and friends in Blacklion, where he aims to spend 95 per cent of the year. He’s fulfilled a long-held dream to open a cookery school - and judging by the occasional groups of chirpy culinary-students filing past us during breaks it’s going well.
“This is my baby – this is my new project that I want to put my heart and soul into and enjoy, and give people a great experience in the cookery school. And I’m absolutely over the moon with it.”
A recurring theme in the conversation is that he likes to do things right. Accordingly, the cookery school will only open when Neven is available to take the courses himself. He’s also refused offers to take on other restaurants - in Dublin, Paris, New York and London - he was even invited to run Chelsea Football Club’s Irish restaurant in the pre-Abramovich era.
“I always believed in doing one [restaurant], and doing it right. I have no ambition to open a chain of restaurants or to put my name to a restaurant where I will never be there.”
He’s also got real life babies of course, two-year-old twins Conor and Lucia, with his wife Amelda, who also looks after the administrative end of the business. This support is necessary as the restaurant’s never been busier. On each of the five nights they open weekly, they seat around 75 customers, and for Sunday lunch it’s anywhere between 90 and 100. Another telling measure of the MacNean success-story are its 55 staff in a restaurant on the Fermanagh-Cavan border. He agrees that if he hadn’t his TV profile and were to seek financial support from the bank for his business plan, he’d be laughed out of the building.
“Who would have thought that a restaurant like ours would be booked up? That we would be the busiest restaurant in the country. The next availability is midweek in October.”
Neven’s seemingly got more reasons than even the late Ian Dury to be cheerful.
“I’m in a good place,” he enthuses, “I’m loving my life. I feel very happy and content, and I’m enjoying what I have. I don’t want to open other places. I don’t want to be any bigger; that’s not what I want. Blacklion is my home.”

Taste of Cavan
Freeing up his schedule allows him to maintain his involvement with ‘Taste of Cavan’.
“It’s the third year – to see the way it grew last year – that’s phenomenal. I’m very proud to do it. I’m doing two demos on the opening on the Friday.”
He sees Taste of Cavan as a key component in attracting visitors from beyond Cavan’s neighbouring counties.
“I see this county as being so unspoilt – not undeveloped – but unspoilt, and very natural. You look at just my own area – the Burren. Wow! Wow! That’s amazing. People can’t get over it... We need to get the message out there – obviously I love the logo: This is Cavan. But let’s get the message out that we are unspoilt.
“I get a lot of people coming to me, staying for one night, having dinner, but going on to the Radisson, Slieve Russell, Kilmore. There’s loads of great hotels, loads of great food in this county and that’s fantastic, and I’ve definitely seen that grow over the last two years, and that will grow and grow again. So I think as a community - and when I say community, in the hotels, B&Bs, restaurants - that we work together and promote the county for what we have. Not individuals that we are doing our own bit, but we do it together – and that’s what The Taste of Cavan does – it showcases the best of local produce; it showcases great chefs, and to have 15,000 people last year... phwaa, it’s amazing, it’s a credit to them.”

Farming before fracking
Given the emphasis he places on Cavan’s unspoilt nature, the Celt asks his opinion on the proposed plan to frack near to Blacklion’s siamese twin, Belcoo. Neven accepts he isn’t an expert in the field, but concerns raised about the potential environmental impact seem to have registered with him.
“Am I against it or for it? If it is really going to affect the whole farming community which is really helping this economy – no way, absolutely no way. So I think there’s a lot more research to be done on how it does effect communities and areas. I know there are a lot of people against it in this area.
“I just hope that it all comes out, if it is open and honest, what actually it does to the area. And if there’s more cons than pros, that it doesn’t go ahead, it’s as simple as that. There’s too much to lose. What farming has done for this country – it’s has got us out of this mess, it really has, and we can’t spoil that – we can’t ruin that, because if we end up damaging the beautiful country, then we have nothing. We have nothing. Forget about it. We can close it – swear to God.”

Michelin man?
Whilst Neven is recognised by the RAI as Ireland’s best chef, there’s one notable accolade he has yet to obtain.
“People say to me, ‘God would you love a Michelin star?’ That’s of no interest to me at all. I will never cook for the Michelin Guide; just for them. I cook for my customers.”
As a result, the Michelin people join the queue to dine at Neven’s (“They just book like any other customer. They said to me the last time they were here, they don’t like that we’re always so booked up - they can never get a booking...”)
“We’ve had Michelin here and they said: ‘Oh listen, if you simplify things to make one bread and not five breads you’ll get your star.’ But that’s not why I cook. I cook for my customers who come here, save hard and book months ahead. They’re my customers, and they’re my biggest critics - they give me good feedback for a new dish.”
Neven vows to “keep evolving” as a chef, but “simplifying things” doesn’t appear to be part of his evolution - he wants to give his customers an experience.
“When we do a new dish; we’re changing the menu at the moment, I get so excited. I’m as passionate now as when I started cooking. I have a hunger to learn and to better myself and I never take for granted what I’ve done - at the end of the day I’m a chef, I cook for people I give them a lovely experience I come out and see my customers and I love meeting people - and that will never change.”